[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 193 (Thursday, December 15, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8620-S8621]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            A SECOND OPINION

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the Senate floor today, as I 
have just about every week since the health care law was passed, to 
give a doctor's second opinion about the health care law. I do that 
because I practice medicine in Casper, WY, as an orthopedic surgeon, 
taking care of families from all across our State, and I have 
significant concerns about the health care law as it was passed, the 
way it was passed, and what was included in the law.
  So I come to the floor today because the American people continue to 
see one news story after another uncovering another error in the health 
care law, another mistake in the health care law, another glitch in the 
health care law. Call it what you will, we continue to see more of the 
health care law's unintended consequences--something that those who 
voted for it didn't foresee as happening--and we are also seeing 
another one of the President's broken promises.
  I come to share with the American people concerns I have as more and 
more of these things come forward because hard-working individuals and 
families all across the Nation realize this health care law was not 
passed for someone such as them. What people asked for, the reason we 
went through the discussion and the debate had to do with the fact that 
people wanted the care they need, from the doctor they want, at a cost 
they can afford.
  When I say people all across the country realize the health care law 
was not passed for someone such as them, and it was passed for someone 
else, that is the reason I come to the floor to talk specifically about 
something called the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, which is part 
of the health care law.
  On Friday, December 9--1 week ago--the Department of Health and Human 
Services announced its plan to shut down the Early Retiree Reinsurance 
Program at the end of this month--shut it down.
  Remember, President Obama and Washington Democrats touted their early 
retiree program. They touted that as one of the health care law's 
early--they called it an early deliverable, something that would be 
there immediately. The health care law's supporters said this early 
retiree program would act, they said, as a bridge. They said the 
program would help employers maintain health insurance coverage for 
retirees over the age of 55 but not yet eligible for Medicare. They 
said this program would help people keep their insurance plan until the 
new health insurance exchanges were up and running in 2014.
  It is only 2011 now, and they are trying to talk about a bridge to 
2014. It quickly became clear the program was intended to be a 
bailout--a bailout--for companies with a large number of union 
employees.
  On October 31 of this year--Halloween day--the senior Senator from my 
home State of Wyoming, the ranking member of the Senate Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Mike Enzi, released a report. 
That Halloween day report is a report the Senator asked for. It was a 
report he asked the Government Accountability Office to conduct, 
specifically looking into the early retiree program's implementation.
  This is why the report is so scary: The GAO, the Government 
Accountability Office, said through the end of September of 2011, the 
administration had already spent more than half the $5 billion 
allocation--more than half already spent by September of 2011.
  Let's fast forward to December 14, 2011. We are talking about 
yesterday. The House Energy and Commerce Committee released updated 
information about the early retiree program's spending. As of last 
Friday, December 9, 2011, the Obama administration--the people in 
charge of this bill, the people who wanted it, passed it, said it would 
work--said: Oh, we have now spent over $4.5 billion of the $5 billion 
budget--91 percent of the total early retiree program budget. It was 
supposed to last through 2014, and 91 percent of it is gone. The budget 
should have lasted 1,300 days. Instead, this administration drained the 
money--taxpayers' money, hard-earned dollars--in just 579 days.
  The early retiree program has run out of money so fast that it is 
going to be forced to close 2 years early. The administration has said 
it is no longer going to pay out claims submitted after December 31 of 
this year.
  The health care law's supporters promised the early retiree program 
would stay in place through January 1st of 2014. What we have is 
another broken promise. Just a little over a month after the GAO report 
was released, we are now finding out this administration spent more 
than $4.5 billion of the total $5 billion allocation that was supposed 
to last until 2014.
  How did this administration--one that claims to be fiscally 
responsible, one that claims to be accountable, one that claims to be 
open--how did this administration allow this program to run out of 
money years ahead of schedule? It went broke because certain 
corporations and union-affiliated organizations rushed to grab a 
taxpayer bailout.
  It is astonishing that the health care law's supporters forced the 
American taxpayers to foot the bill to keep private companies' and 
unions' health insurance benefit promises to their workers. Most 
Americans would be shocked and outraged to learn the administration did 
not even require companies to disclose their earnings in order to get 
the early retiree program funding.
  Let me repeat that. The Department of Health and Human Services chose 
to not mandate that employers prove--prove--they needed funding from 
the early retiree program before approving the applications and then 
sending them--those corporations and those union plans--taxpayer 
dollars. The Department of Health and Human Services said: No. Here is 
your money.
  News reports indicate small businesses asked the administration to 
set up a review process to stop government entities and unions from 
consuming all this early retiree program money. According to the GAO 
report, the administration refused. They decided to distribute early 
retiree subsidies on a first come, first served basis.
  The GAO findings and the House Energy and Commerce Committee report 
suggest the Obama administration used the Early Retiree Reinsurance 
Program to reward its political allies. These two reports suggest this 
administration did so by directing most of the program's resources to 
plans serving unionized auto and government workers.
  This is based on the administration's own data: Based on the 
administration's data, nearly half of the entire $5 billion program 
will be spent on just 20 entities. It is fascinating that the most 
money of all--the most money of all--went to the United Auto Workers 
Retiree Medical Benefits Trust. So how much did the United Auto Workers 
need? They took over $387 million.
  Administration officials said the reason they are giving away the 
taxpayers' money so fast is because the program is so popular. Spending 
money fast does not mean this government and this administration is 
spending taxpayer dollars wisely.
  Similar to so many parts of the health care law, the early retiree 
program just throws money at a problem rather than trying to fix it. We 
could have worked together in Congress. We could have worked together 
to help our Nation's early retirees have better access to health 
insurance. We could have done it by enacting meaningful health care 
reform--health care reform that actually lowers the cost of medical 
care.

[[Page S8621]]

  Remember, that is what the President promised. That is what he 
promised in a joint session of Congress. He stood there, and he said 
under his plan the cost of health insurance would actually go down. He 
used the term ``about $2,500 per family per year.'' That is what he 
promised; that the cost of health insurance for American families would 
go down by $2,500 a year.
  What are families at home seeing? They continue to see the cost of 
their health insurance go up--and go up a lot. The President and 
Washington Democrats squandered their chance to enact real health care 
reform, and they did that the moment they decided to ram a very 
partisan health care law through Congress and ignore the cries of the 
American people--people at home who said: Stop. Do not do this.
  Now the American people are seeing, once again, the consequences of 
those actions by this President and the Democratically controlled 
Congress, seeing that the consequences are ones they, the American 
people, continue to have to pay for.
  It is time to repeal the President's health care law. We need to get 
back to patient-centered care, the care people need, from the doctor 
they want, at a cost they can afford.
  At this point, I continue to come to the floor because I continue to 
believe this health care law is bad for patients, it is bad for 
providers--the nurses and doctors who take care of those patients--and 
it is terrible for the American taxpayers. That is why, as I go home 
every weekend and talk to people around my home State, they say: This 
was not passed for me. This was a law passed for somebody else. It is 
why seniors on Medicare know $500 billion under the health care law was 
taken from Medicare, not to save Medicare but to start a whole new 
government program for other people. It is why the popularity of this 
health care law actually continues to go down--and it is less popular 
today than it was the day it was passed.
  It is time to repeal the President's health care law and replace it 
with health care proposals to help Americans get the care they need, 
from the doctor they want, at a cost they can afford.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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